Os autores informam que não há conflito de interesse.
Ana Paula Cavalcante Carneiro1
Gutemberg Souza Silva2
Maria Luisa Duarte3
1. Master on Forensic Expertise by Universidade de Pernambuco – Recife/PE, Brazil. Especialist on Forensic Dentistry by Associação Brasileira de Odontologia – ABO/Alagoas. Forensic Odontologist of Estácio de Lima’s Medical Forensic Institute – Maceió/AL, Brazil. Professor of the Discipline of Forensic Medicine of Bacharelor’s degree of Law of SEUNE and Maurício de Nassau – Maceió/AL, Brazil.
2. Graduating student of Bacharelor’s degree of Medicine at UNCISAL – Maceió/AL, Brazil.
3. Doctor on Pathology by Universidade Federal Fluminense – Niterói/RJ, Brazil. Especialist on Forensic Medicine by Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Legal/AMB. Forensic Physician of Estácio de Lima’s Medical Forensic Institute – Maceió/AL, Brazil. Professor Assistant of the Discipline of Forensic Medicine and Medical Ethics of Bacharelor’s degree of Medicine of UNCISAL – Maceió/Al, Brazil.
In the routine of Medical Forensic Institutes, cases of decomposing bodies, carbonization, mutilation or skeletonization which require a scientific process that enables identification are not rare. For such cases, the forensic analysis options are fingerprints and the dental data, anthropological or genetics analysis. This case aimed to identify both a head and a decapitated male body found separately and on different dates in the rural area of a town in the state of Alagoas and later sent for forensic examination to the Estácio de Lima’s Medical Forensic Institute in Maceió – Alagoas. Initially, the headless body was studied and it was in the coloration phase of putrefaction. A biological sample was collected from the cadaver’s sternum for possible genetic confrontation and the fingerprints were also requested for comparison using the state’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to try to identify the dead body. The result was hampered by the absence of prior registration of the fingerprints. Immediately after the autopsy, an alleged sister of the deceased showed up claiming the body. Her samples of oral mucosa cells were collected by swabs. Nine days after the forensic analysis of the body, a forensic analysis was made in the remaining of a human head and three previous anteroinferior dental elements were collected for genetic comparison. There were no dental records for comparison and possible legal dental identification. The genetic material collected was sent to the Forensic DNA Laboratory of the Universidade Federal de Alagoas, which carried out examinations of this nature for the Alagoas State Crime Laboratory. After a period of almost two and a half months, the DNA test results came back positive, which proved that the body and the head belonged to the same person and that the body’s claimant was actually the victim’s sister.
